I had two people call me today about placing hives on their property. The first lady had only about 8 acres but did have orchards and a cleared area. She is located in Ivy which means only a small commute form my house to her property. I will go out to her property on Monday morning and scout around. It was kind of funny because she asked me what the down side of letting me put hives on her property. Aside from the stings to herself or pets I guess I should have mentioned possible law suits from neighbors. I will bring that up on Monday. No reason to talk about litigation right off the bat.
The second guy I have yet to call but he sounds interested and loves the idea of having bees on his property. Will have to withhold comments until I speak to him further.

Today we went to the Albemarle county fair and saw the bee man. The local bee club set up a large wire cage with a small hive of bees inside. The man stepped inside and talked about honey bees. I always love seeing people around me watch what the bees are doing. We all seem to have a fascination with them especially when they cannot sting the be-jesus out of you. I did roll my eyes when he said honey-bees have been around for thousands of years. Try 35 million years.

Nina and I also ate some fresh donuts made on site by the doughnut man. I was surprised to see him pretty thin. If I had a doughnut machine mounted on my car I would become legendary as the headless horseman to all of the cops in Virginia.

I still need to extract about 80 pounds of honey soon. Will probably use this as diplomatic sweetener with prospective land owners.

Well my ad in the C-ville paper was posted today. And because of a SNAFU with C-Ville last week they published it for free this week. So far one lady has called expressing interest in having some hives on her property and maybe learning some things about beekeeping. She has about 13 acres that are secluded and is about 15 minutes from downtown Charlottesville. This would be ideal. I was worried people in Nelson County might be the only people calling.

This Sunday I plan on taking a trip out to her property and give it a full evaluation for the suitability fore establishing a hive of bees. The things you need to look for when establishing a hive colony location has been articled and written about ad nauseam but I will go over it briefly again.

• An ideal site would be secluded from a honeybee hives most unnatural predator. The teenage punk down the road who happens to see your hive of bees and decides bee-tipping might be a fun thing to do. Yes these creatures are found everywhere. In the city, hanging out at the seven eleven, riding ATV’s on your property without permission, and talking during the movie. Since it is illegal to place kill bounties on them the next best thing would be to just hide your hives from plain sight. This can be done either by using your local flora as camouflage, placing them behind bales of hay, or just having a site in the middle of nowhere.
• Topography. Ideally your hives should be up on a hill facing the south. In this way they will get the benefit of constant air-flow, the warmth from not being placed in a shallow depression where cool air settles, and a clear view of the sun. If you can have some shade for them on the northern side of the hill that is an added bonus. It will act as a wind break from the cold north winds and also provide shade during the summer time.
• Water: Try to have a water source close by. Don’t place your bees near a tidal marsh or bog but maybe within 100 yards of a stream. If a water source is not easily available to them then provide them a source of water. A Frisbee full of water with a few pieces of balsa wood floating on it will work. Or even an inverted can with holes punched into it. Be sure to change it frequently and don’t let it stagnate. Remember standing water breeds mosquitoes so if you leave your Frisbee out too long you may have to start watching out for West Nile Virus. Change the water. Also don’t make your water source something the bees will drown in which is why I suggested placing balsa wood on top. It floats and allows the bees a perch to sit on while they take a cool drink.
• Neighbors: If you have to put your hive next to your neighbor’s house make sure he or she is cool with that. The last thing you want is your neighbor blasting your hives with his Benelli Nova Pump 12 gauge in a fit of rage after being stung while mowing the lawn. The neighbor may have children that are allergic to bees. I know bees are everywhere but your neighbor may not understand that or accept your carefully drawn risk analysis chart. In this case honey is mightier than the sword. Be sure to give them a few quarts or maybe even include them on how fun it is to keep bees. Who knows maybe you can start a honey-cooperative together.
• Try to find a site that is free of livestock. Cows, llamas, and especially horses. If there is one thing that drives honey-bees batty besides Whinnie The Poo ransacking their hive it is a sweaty horse. The sweat will drive them crazy and the horse too.

Sometimes it just is not feasible to put your hives on your property. Yes, yes your idea of building a platform on your roof seems like a good idea now but your spouse may think otherwise when it collapses down the roof into your swimming pool. The easiest solution is to do what I am doing. Put an ad in the local paper. There is bound to be a farmer, vineyard owner, naturalist, adventurer, or hippie who wants some bees on their property.

If you decide to go this route make sure you can get along with your prospective land owner. It is like going out on a date. Don’ t immediately fall in love with the first caller. Over the phone she may be sweet as your grand mothers honey-bran muffins but after a few months of bees on her property and a few swollen eyes they may become disenchanted with the folksy novelty of having a hive of bees on their property. Make sure you visit at least a few sites.

Be sure to tell them all of the good things about having bees on their property. Pollination, ecological diversity, increased garden yields, free candles, honey, and comb honey. Be sure to follow up with the darker side of beekeeping. Bee stings to the land owner, their children, their live stock and pets. Remind them that bee-keeping can be just as dangerous as driving a heard of cattle up to Montana. If after that they still want bees and if you are comfortable enough, pull out a waiver and ask them to sign it. It will state that said beekeeper, you, can not be held liable for any damage caused by the bees. I know this may be hard but it will be a lot harder for you when they sue the pants off of you for the death of their hyper-allergic pet Poodle. They have to assume the risk.

That about sums it up. If I can think of a few more items I will mention it in my next post. Until then remember. “Honey, its whats for dinner.”

Today I emailed the 30 word or less add to be put into the local paper. Keeping it down to 30 words was tough but I think I managed to get my idea across. Let me know.

“Beekeeper looking to establish three bee hives on rural property near Charlottesville for Spring 2010. Can offer free honey in exchange. If interested please call 540-903-2003.”

Brushing the bees.

Hello, My name is Jesse Bellavance and I recently moved to the wonderful town of Charlottesville with my wife and daughter from the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. We lived there for over ten years. My wife is a potter and I have just completed over 10 years of work as an environmental cartographer for the USMC aboard MCB Quantico.

More importantly, in relation to this web site, I am a beekeeper. Not a full fledged 100 hive beekeeper, but your average hobbyist who at the most had 4 hives up and running. The small number of hives should not reflect on how much I love beekeeping. For me, 4 hives was manageable and fit in with my busy schedule of work, night classes, and Brazilian Jujitsu. I guess you could say I am a jack of all trades. I may not be a master but might consider myself a journeyman.

Ever since I purchased the book The Hive and The Honey Bee and Richard Bonney’s two part series of books on beekeeping in 1994, I have loved beekeeping with a passion. The smell of a freshly opened hive with its soft wax and the gentle humming of a yet to be disturbed hive of bees. That is the life fore me.

I did not actually get to practice the art until 1997. Until that point I just read book after book and read the periodicals. I had a very academic sense of what beekeeping should be. In 1997 I moved to Morgantown to attend graduate school and managed to find a local beekeeper by the name of Barbara Fallon, who would take me under her wing. She was a great teacher and taught me how to be gentle with the bees, disturbing them as little as possible. I learned a lot from her despite my ham-fisted ways of doing things.

Before we moved here I had three hives of honey bees on my Uncle’s property in Woodford, Virginia. It was the ideal setting. He had plenty of fruit trees, vast gardens, and a large resource of surrounding farmland for the bees to draw upon. In addition, the site was secluded, faced the south, and was on top of a hill with trees behind it providing shade during the summer. My bees were happy until they decided to succumb to colony collapse disorder or my own mismanagement. I am still not sure of the culprit.

However one hive still thrives on his property which I even managed to cull over 80 pounds of honey from not more than two weeks ago. Next year I will help my uncle with the process for establishing some new colonies.

Now that I am a new transplant to the Charlottesville area I hope to find someone close to Cville that will let me set up some hives on their property. In return they will get free honey of course and the satisfaction that they are helping honey bees become stronger naturally.

During the last few years I have stopped using many of the toxic medications used to treat for mites. Apistan being the key miticide. I try to purchase queens that have been genetically chosen for strong hive hygiene, good temperment, and resistance to mites. After that I wish for the best and hope that proper management will help. I do use some pest control measures such as essential oil treatments for mites and terramycin for American Foul Brood but that is about it. I cannot say my hives are organic but they have far less chemicals than most hives out there today.

Returning to the topic of finding a new site. I have called the C-Ville paper and submitted a classified in hopes to find a new home for some bees for next Spring. Not that anyone is reading this but if you are, and you live near Charlottesville, let me know. I got a jar of honey in it for you.

JPB